1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fabric for use in covering an architectural opening such as a door, window or for otherwise furnishing the interior of dwellings and more particularly to a fabric, as well as the method and apparatus for manufacturing same, including a plurality of vanes interconnected by a sheet or sheets of face material. When the vanes are oriented vertically, the fabric can be suspended in the architectural opening with a hardware system adapted to slide the vanes laterally of the opening between extended and retracted positions and pivot the vanes about vertical axes between open and closed positions.
2. Description of the Known Art
Coverings for architectural openings such as doors, windows and the like are very common and serve a triple purpose in decorating, providing privacy and insulating an architectural structure. Such coverings have taken numerous forms with early architectural coverings consisting primarily of fabric adjustably positioned over an architectural opening in different manners. For many years, the fabric has been suspended adjacent to the top of the architectural opening by hardware that allowed the fabric to be extended across the opening or retracted adjacent one or two sides of the opening. Folds or pleats have been provided to give the fabric a soft appearance. Such window coverings are commonly referred to as draperies. Fabrics for draperies come in numerous designs and weights so that many aesthetic appearances can be obtained along with varying degrees of insulation. Further, some fabrics are translucent in nature, such as sheers, thereby permitting to some degree the passage of light and vision.
Coverings for architectural openings also include venetian blinds which consist of parallel horizontal slats of material suspended by tape ladders such that the slats are pivotal about horizontal axes and movable between an open position lying perpendicular to the architectural opening wherein light can be transferred through the opening and a closed position wherein the slats lie parallel to the opening and block the passage of light and vision through the opening. The blinds can also be retracted by lifting the slats so that they are gathered in stacked relationship adjacent to the top of the architectural opening. Venetian blinds have added a new dimension to the decorative characteristic of window coverings by providing sharp clean lines which are desirable in certain environments.
Vertical blinds have also been developed which typically include a plurality of vertically suspended vanes that are pivotal about a vertical axis so as to be movable between an open position extending perpendicular to the window opening and a closed position extending parallel to the opening. It has been difficult to design vanes for vertical blinds so that they hang in a straight or untwisted manner from their top to bottom and will not twist from top to bottom when they are rotated about their vertical axis. Vanes made from wood, aluminum or polyvinylchloride have very little if any twist from top to bottom but are hard to the touch and cold visually, therefore rendering them undesirable for many applications. Vertical vanes have been formed from laminated materials, or hybrids of fabric with relatively rigid materials such as polyvinylchloride to soften the touch and the look but each of these vane constructions suffer from various shortcomings.
As will be appreciated, most draperies need to be retracted before permitting the passage of light and vision but are desirable in that they create a soft appearance with many varied aesthetic possibilities. Venetian or vertical blinds are desirable in that they selectively allow the passage of vision and light even when extended across a window opening but are typically more harsh in appearance than draperies. Attempts have accordingly been made at designing coverings for architectural openings which combine the positive features of draperies with the positive features of vertical and venetian blinds to arrive upon an enhanced covering product.
A patent disclosing the incorporation of a drapery look into a vertical blind type window covering is U.S. Pat. No. 3,851,699 issued to Shapiro on Dec. 3, 1974. In the window drape disclosed in the Shapiro patent, a continuous sheet of face fabric is secured to a plurality of vertically extending planar vanes in face-to-face relationship with the planar vanes so as to form a portion of the vane. The sheet of fabric therefore projects alternately off a front edge and rear edge of adjacent vanes.
Another window covering wherein a continuous sheet of face fabric is adhered to a plurality of vertical vanes is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,844,330 to Hyman issued on Oct. 29, 1974. The Hyman product is different from Shapiro in that the face fabric is preferably bonded to the vertical vanes only along a top portion of the vane. It is difficult to control the appearance of a window covering constructed in this manner, however, as the face fabric is only connected at a top edge and therefore is free to move independently of the vanes along the majority of the length of the vanes. While Hyman suggests that the face fabric can be connected to the vanes along the entire length of the vanes, it is stated that such would detract from the drapery like appearance of the covering.
The patents to Ronkholz-Tolle, NeeTolle U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,789 issued Mar. 30, 1976, Wulf U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,552 issued May 7, 1991, and Kazuma U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,913 issued May 5, 1992, show other forms of architectural opening covers wherein a face sheet is interconnected to more rigid vertically extending vanes in various manners. In the case of the Ronkholz-Tolle and the Wulf patents, a continuous sheet of face fabric is interwoven around the more rigid vanes while in the Kazuma patent, individual strips of face fabric interconnect more rigid vanes creating a look that might be more similar to conventional vertical blinds than draperies.
The fabric of the present invention, along with its method and apparatus of manufacture, has been developed to overcome shortcomings in prior architectural opening coverings.
The fabric of the present invention which finds a use in a covering for an architectural opening includes a plurality of elongated vanes made from a first sheet or piece of material with the vanes being interconnected along one side edge to a continuous face sheet or piece of material so that the fabric so formed has the soft features of drapery and the positive light and vision blockout features of a vertical or venetian blind.
The vanes are preferably fabricated in a tubular configuration giving the vanes torsional rigidity along their length and through the use of fabric materials having diagonal dimensional stability or memory, allow the vanes to resist torque or twisting along their length while presenting a soft appearance. The vanes, however, preferably include a pair of flaps extending along a side edge thereof so that the face sheet material can be connected to the flaps such as by inserting the face sheet between the flaps and securing the face sheet therebetween to provide a positive connection between the vanes and the face sheet. In this manner, the fabric not only includes a unique combination of vanes and face sheet material, but the materials for the face sheet and the vanes can have different aesthetic, structural, functional and tactile characteristics.
The flaps on the vanes extend the full length of the vanes with the face sheet being secured to the vanes substantially along the entire length of the vanes. Due to the fact that the vanes preferably have torsional rigidity along their length, the behavior of the face sheet between the vanes is uniform and related to the vanes along the entire length of the covering giving a predictable appearance to the covering regardless of the position of the vanes.
When the vanes are oriented vertically, the face sheet may have an opaque valance strip secured along the top edge to hide the connections between the fabric and an operational system utilized to support the fabric and move the vanes between open and closed, as well as extended and retracted positions. The preferred hollow characteristic of the tubular vanes provides an ideal arrangement for suspending the vanes from the operating system since the connectors between the fabric and the operating system can be positioned for the main part internally of the vane in a visually nonapparent location.
Each end of the covering is uniquely finished to complete the drapery-like appearance of the covering. The endmost vanes are covered with the face sheet material in a unique manner so that the fabric has a uniform textural appearance, hangs uniformly and is not detrimentally affected by solar heat.
An apparatus for fabricating a fabric in accordance with the present invention includes a supply roll of a first sheet of material used to fabricate the vanes. A straightener for removing any bow or curve from the first sheet material is provided downstream from the supply roll along with an adhesive applicator adapted to apply a bead of adhesive adjacent to opposite side edges of the first sheet material. A creasing system adapted to place creases adjacent to opposite side edges of the first sheet material and also possibly along an approximate center line of the first sheet material is also provided. A folder downstream from the creasing system simultaneously folds the sides of the first sheet material so that the side edges are proximate each other. A second adhesive applicator adapted to place a bead of adhesive on at least one of the folded side edges of the first sheet material receives the folded material and a compressor presses the side edges against each other to bond the sheet of material to itself along the bead of adhesive. A cutter is provided for cutting the folded and bonded first sheet material into predetermined lengths defining the vanes used in the fabric. A second supply roll of a face sheet material is provided adjacent to completed vanes along with a system for moving the face sheet material of the second supply roll in a direction perpendicular to the vanes. An inserter in the form of a blade adapted to insert a portion of the second sheet material between a pair of flaps defined on the vanes overlies the vanes and a second compressor seals the second sheet material between the flaps on the vanes. The fabric material formed by the apparatus is finally wound on an accumulator roll for shipment.
A method of forming the fabric comprises the steps performed by the aforenoted apparatus.
Other aspects, features and details of the present invention will be more completely understood by reference to the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment, taken in conjunction with the drawings, and from the appended claims.